From the publisher

Parma Eldalamberon 'The Book of Elven-tongues' is a journal of the Elvish Linguistic Fellowship a special interest group of the Mythopoeic Society. The current issue presents previously unpublished writings by J. R. R. Tolkien concerning his Elvish languages. These have been edited and annotated by Christopher Gilson, under the guidance of Christopher Tolkien and with the permission of the Tolkien Estate.

The Comparative Tables are a series of charts laying out the regular correspondences among the sounds of the various languages Tolkien had invented by the late 1930s or conceived of as part of his history of the Elves, including Valarin, Quenya, Lindarin, Telerin, Noldorin, Ilkorin, Danian and Lemberin, as well as the Mannish language Taliskan. There are charts for word-initial and medial consonants and consonant groups, and for long vowels and diphthongs. These are accompanied by Tolkien’s notes on the general phonetic characteristics of the historical development of the languages, and on their phonological types in terms of the "real" languages on which they were modelled.

The Outline of Phonetic Development is a detailed description of the historical changes that produced of the sounds of Quenya from the sounds of Primitive Eldarin, including the regular developments in word-initial and medial positions and the distinctive changes of sounds in contact. Phonetic variations among the historical dialects of Quenya are described, as well as those divergent developments occurring in the closely related languages of Lindarin, Telerin and Noldorin, and the influences of these on the dialects of Quenya. The text appears to be from the late 1930s or 1940s.

The Outline of Phonology is a revised and expanded version of this text, dating from the 1950s. It describes the phonology of Quenya as primarily the speech of the Noldor in Valinor; but it is similarly arranged, giving variations within the historical dialects of Quenya and divergent developments in the related Vanyarin and Telerin.